Following the announcement of her intention to visit imprisoned former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to mark International Human Rights Day on Wednesday next week, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday gave President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) an ultimatum — if he does not release Chen by Christmas Day, she would go on a hunger strike until Chen is released.
Chen is serving a 20-year term for accepting bribes during his eight-year presidency. Suffering from deteriorating health, Chen has not been granted amnesty or home care by Ma, despite repeated appeals by medical experts, human rights advocates and Chen’s supporters.
At a news conference held yesterday at the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Taipei office, Lu announced a list of “visitors” that she hopes will accompany her on Wednesday, including Taoyuan County commissioner-elect Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), Changhua County commissioner-elect Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷), Chiayi mayor-elect Twu Shiing-jer (涂醒哲), Penghu County commissioner-elect Chen Kuang-fu (陳光復) and Greater Tainan Deputy Mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左).
Many of the DPP county commissioners invited have not yet replied, but it is hoped that they would answer the call and seek to appeal to what little conscience Ma has left and save Chen Shui-bian, Lu said.
The past six years of imprisonment have been hard on the former leader and he is very ill, Lu said, adding that given his poor health, the legal cases in which Chen Shui-bian is involved are in limbo because of his inability to appear in court due.
Chen Shui-bian’s condition can wait no longer and the Ma administration should seek to release him on medical parole by Wednesday at the earliest, Lu said, adding that if Ma does decide to release him, she would greet Chen Shui-bian in front of Pei Te Prison.
Liya Chu (朱如茵), whose parents are New York-based Taiwanese restaurateurs, has been crowned the champion of US television cooking competition MasterChef Junior, after wowing the judges, including celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, with a feast of fusion cuisine. In the finale of the show’s eighth season, broadcast on Thursday, Chu walked away with US$100,000 after serving a spread of spiced duck breast with scallion pancakes and miso eggplant, followed by coconut pandan panna cotta with a passion fruit coulis and sesame tuille. Chu, who was 10 years old at the time of filming three years ago, faced off against then-11-year-old Grayson Price from
A university student has gained the spotlight for an interactive map he designed detailing all of China’s military bases and installations throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Soochow University music student Joseph Wen (溫約瑟), who calls himself an amateur military enthusiast, said he created the map to “help people better understand the cross-strait situation.” Wen originally posted the map online on June 14 last year, but it gained greater attention after he mentioned it during an appearance on a China Television talk show. On the show, Wen said he had gathered information on the locations from publicly available Web sites, as
RISK FACTORS: ‘We hope people can cooperate and endure it ... it is possibly the very important last mile,’ Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung said Taiwan’s COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations are to remain the same next month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday. The center reported 42,112 new local COVID-19 cases and 85 deaths, saying that the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has dropped to a new low this month. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said that the center is keeping COVID-19 restrictions and mask regulations the same due to the local virus situation, and an increase in the number of imported cases of the new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 of SARS-CoV-2, among other risk factors. Easing
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